“The bill also could take America a step closer to bankruptcy. And for progressives in particular — for those who believe that government has a mission to help the poor and protect the vulnerable — that prospect should be alarming. If federal debt continues rising on its present path, hastened by a $1 trillion health-care bill, it is the poor and vulnerable who will be most harmed.”

This is also why some political risk analysts are connecting the dots between PelosiCare and the value of the dollar:

“If the Reserve Bank of India’s directors had any doubts about the wisdom of buying 200 tonnes of IMF gold — and likely dumping some U.S. Treasuries in the process — they had only to watch last weekend’s legislative activities on Capitol Hill. The proceedings provided plenty of reassurance that the move was a smart play.

“Nothing in the healthcare reform bill that passed the House of Representatives should give investors in dollar-denominated assets any confidence that U.S. policymakers are serious about tackling the government’s structural budget deficit.”

Amazing as it is that the Washington Post would be pointing out the obvious about the Democrats $1.2 Trillion health care spending plan, since liberal and progressive news writers have given aide, comfort and a criticism-free ride for those who are doing the spending.

But now Fred Hiatt has really stepped over the lines — he is “calling out” President Obama for his failure to cut keep his promise about the health bill spending and the deficit.

“True, the Congressional Budget Office has said that the bill is paid for. But the CBO is not allowed to count $250 billion in projected Medicare payments to doctors over the next 10 years, because the House — after first acknowledging that cost in its reform bill — decreed it had nothing to do with reform because lawmakers didn’t want to pay for it.“Nor is the CBO permitted to ask whether Congress will truly cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare programs in coming years, as the House bill assumes. History suggests that legislators will not be deaf to the complaints of seniors and those who treat them when it comes time for the axe to fall.

“As Post health reporter Ceci Connolly explained in a front-page story last week, the House bill also does not do much to lower costs.”

I asked a senior Senator who sits on the Committee on Finance when Congress has ever cut Medicare more than $100 billion, let along half a trillion — the answer was “never.” Will Congress make the cuts they say they will — answer: No. Then why is CBO accepting these promises — because CBO has agreed to let the cuts be paper ones, never real.

The Democrats have lost touch with fiscal reality, do not care about the cost of their bill and are especially giving the middle finger to all those independent voters concerned about spending and the deficit. The Democrats say they care about spending and the deficit, but they keep spending trillion after trillion. It is really ironic that Hiatt quotes a “progressive” budget analyst, about the debt, since progressives have been the ones pushing to spend trillions on health care.

In a nutshell, five percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product will be financed by debt:

“Under his plan, according to a CBO analysis, the government will be spending 24.5 percent of gross domestic product — the total value of the national economy — by 2019 while raising only 19 percent in revenue: a huge, unsustainable gap.

“In the kind of fiscal crisis that might ensue, as progressive budget expert Robert Greenstein said recently, “the risk is high that the people with the least political power in this country could bear a disproportionate share of the burden even though, by and large, they’re lower on the income scale.” The government would spend more and more on interest payments while likely stinting on college scholarships, inner-city schools, and, above all, aid to the poor and near-poor here and abroad.”

This is a surprise? The President lies about the debt and cost of his plan. CBO pretends — while protesting they are being forced to pretend — cuts to Medicare will happen that will not and never have happened. (A Democratic controlled U.S. House, U.S. Senate and White House will cut Medicare half a trillion — oh, we are really playing charades, is that it?)

The U.S. House leadership kept increasing the spending on their health bill without any limit, they just spent because they want too — and the U.S. House leadership lies about the cost of its bill.

We are living in a pretend land where we say everything is revenue-neutral and we promise not to go into debt, but our elected leaders are lying to the American people and to the world’s financial circles. When the editorial page of the Washington Post starts warning about moving closer to bankruptcy, and progress budget analysts are warning about debt, you can bet things are really far worse than you can imagine. I guess their warnings are better late than never.